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"Great flavour."

"Perfect Bagel Texture."

Disadvantages

"Sesame seeds are messy."

The Perfect Bagel!

I have enjoyed eating bagels for many years and have tried all kinds of varieties and brands. One of my favourite bagel varieties are these New York Bakery Co. Sesame Bagels. The brand are an expert in making bagels and all of their products have an authenticity about them as well as being of a high quality. The Sesame variety is a bit of a change from their plain bagel as the seeds, which are baked into the top of the bagel, provide a lot of flavour and a different kind of texture. You are able to buy these bagels in different sized packs including a five pack and a four pack. The prices for these products at my local store on my last shop was GBP1.78 and GBP1.28 The bagels come in distinctive packaging featuring a logo of the statue of liberty. The wrapper is printed with product information including full ingredients and nutritional values. The bagels are suitable for vegetarians and vegans and are free from artificial colours and flavours. One bagel provides 240 calories and 2.6 grams of fat. I enjoy eating these bagels fresh from the packet with nothing on them. I wouldn''t do that with a plain bagel but the sesame seeds on this bagel are slightly oily and have a lovely toasted nutty flavour. I also like to toast the bagels and spread them with fillings like butter or sunflower spread, cheeses, jams, hazelnut spread or peanut butter. Anything goes with these bagels so both sweet or savoury fillings work well. The bagels are soft enough to slice although I find the sesame seeds do come off a lot and make a mess. They aren''t baked into the dough rather than sticking on the top of the bagel. The packaging ends up with a load of seeds in the bottom. I tend to pour these out into the middle of my bagel onto the filling so as not to waste them. These bagels have the perfect dense bagel texture which is more chewy than bread but equally soft. They are really filling and satisfying. I would recommend these to anyone who likes bakery products. I think these are a fantastic alternative to a sandwich at lunchtime and they keep you fuller for longer. Try them!

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An ok bagel, but I prefer the plain ones for a savoury snack.

I had to purchase these with my weekly shop, and they had run out of the plain version in Sainsburys. I needed them for a meal so I needed savoury ones, otherwise I would always choose the cinnamon and raisin variety.

These cost the same as all the others in the New York range, so it's about £1.10 for 5 bagels (I still haven't worked out why it's 5 and not 6 or 4!).

The bagels have sesame seeds mostly on one half, but you do get a few that escape onto the other half.

These bagels do have the usual sticky to touch outside as others, but it is less noticeable due to the seeds. Cutting these in half is a real nightmare as the seeds fling off in all directions, and really do go everywhere. They can also fall off in the toaster and burn, and that really smells unpleasant, but I suppose that's the risk you take when putting seeds in the toaster.

I would say these bagels are the weakest of all the new york bagels for taste, the seeds can go quite bitter and the main part of the bagel generally toasts a lot crunchier than the others. They still have that distinctive bagel taste, but they never come out as soft as the others, and I personally find the seeds get in the way and they don't add much to the bagel, I definitely prefer the plain ones to these.

If you like sesame seeds then these are great, but I find the seeds annoying and a bit pointless really. So won't be buying these again.

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Lovely

I love nothing more than a nice bagel and I have been munching the plain variety of these now for a good few months and hadn't spotted these one's till last week and couldn't wait to get to grips with them!

The Packaging:

See-through plastic bag that has red and orange sections of colour on it and picture of the statue of liberty. I am told that these are Authentic Stone Baked, New York Bakery Co. '5' Sesame Bagels and that they are a good source of fibre. On the back of the bag other information stated includes ingredients and allergy advice being given along with a pep talk about fibre, storage information and some recipe ideas are given, there is a full nutritional chart on there and contact details for Maple Leaf Bakery (the manufacturer of the product) are clearly given. Nice enough bag that gives alot of information you may or not need on it and it does up to the top of via you tyeing it.

The Bagels:

Round with a hole in the middle of them they are rather thick and golden in appearance with a sort of glaze on them that isn't sticky to the touch.and of course have the obligatory hole in the middle and are covered in sesame seeds. To heat these up you can either pop them in a toaster after slicing them in half or use a conventional grill until the sesame seeds toast and the colour goes a little bit more golden on the actual bagel. When sliced you meet the white bread texture and of course you toast both sides of a bagel so that goes golden too.

I love these bagels, easy to toast and versatile these really are. For me these go with more savoury fillings and are great with pate, scrambled eggs, salad and chicken anything really that you fancy the list is endless!

The bread is doughy but not too moist, well seasoned and I simply love these. They wernt damaged by freezing them either and do stay fresh in a bread-bin for about 3 days once opened in the sealed bag. There are no negative points to these at all, the sesame gives a sort of nutty textured feeling to the bagels and they simply taste fresh and I'll shut up...I got to go toast a bagel now I'm starving!

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Yummy bagel with a nice helping of sesame seeds sprinkled on the top.

***NEW YORK BAGELS***New York bagels were founded in 1907 in New York City. Here making bagels became an art, simmering the raw dough in boiling water prior to baking was the best kept secret to create the chewy texture and lock in the flavour. The bagels were then stone-baked to create the ultimate perfect outer crust.

Bagels are one of the most nutritious bread products you can eat and ounce for ounce have less than half the fat of most white breads. New York Bagels are low in fat with less than 2% fat in their plain bagel. New York bagels come in 7 yummy flavours including:

***PRICE/AVALIABILITY***You can get New York Bagels from most super-markets including Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Asda, Spar, Co Op, Somerfield and other local shops and supermarkets.

Prices below are taken from www.mysupermarket.com

* Tesco - 0.90p valid until 09/06/2009 (Normal price £1.23)* Sainsbury's - £1.29* Ocado - £1.22I have never seen the Multi-seeded or the Fruit 'n Oats Bagels in my local Tesco or Sainsbury's.

***APPEARANCE***New York bagels are of course round with a circle hold through the middle of the bagel. They are a lovely golden colour and are quite thick which enables you to cut them in half from the side and enjoy with something on top of them or make then into a bagel sandwich. You can see a nice helping of yellow/white sesame seeds on the top of the bagel. When you cut into the bagel you can see the inside of the bagel is a lovely white colour and looks just like bread inside.

***NEW YORK BAGELS TOASTED***These are yummy toasted and you can put anything on them. I normally put some chicken paste (I can hear you all cringe) on mine and I think they are truly yummy, you can also try soft cheese and cheese spread and I sometimes our butter and marmite on them as well. They are great toasted to make a yummy bacon bagel. As long as you don't over toast them and burn them like I do sometimes they are light and make a yummy breakfast. You could even put an egg on top of the bagel as well and enjoy with some baked beans. When they are toasted and you bite into them you will notice that a lot of the seeds will fall off. As you bite into the toasted bagel you outside of the bagel is nice and toasted but the inside is still reasonably soft, which is nice. The bagels are quite thick so if they were toasted all the way through I think they would be a bit too dry.

***NEW YORK BAGELS AS NORMAL***I sometimes take these to work for lunch; I put chicken paste in them or sometimes put some meat with some salad in them as well. I find that they can taste a bit dry though, but this is just what the bagels are like. The sesame seeds on top give them a nice finishing, but you can't really taste the seeds with the bagel. When you bite into the bagel it may feel a bit dry, and these bagels are quite chewy as well. Sesame seeds are a good source of protein and calcium.

***OTHER INFORMATION***If you go onto their website www.newyorkbakey.co.uk it will tell you about the history of the bagel and the New York bagel products and nutritional information for each flavoured bagel. It will also tell you where you can buy bagels form and gives you ideas what to have in your bagel.

***OVERALL OPINION***I first starting eating these last year and I have them regularly as I really enjoy taking them to work for lunch and I also love bacon bagels as well. I have also tried the plain bagels and would try some of the other flavours as well. I would especially try the other seeded bagels, if I could get hold of them in my local supermarket. I would recommend people try these at least once. You may not like the chewy texture but you may love it. Depending on what filling/topping you sue in/on your bagel will depend on how dry and how the bagel tastes. Their shelf life is the same as bread and once opened should be kept in a dry place and used within a few days before they go past their sell by date.